Mushrooms & garlic: best friends forever
This pairing will always be a classic, says Nicola Galloway.
Ihave grown both outdoor and indoor mushrooms with varying success. The outdoor mushrooming began about five years ago by way of inoculating a log with mushroom spore pellets. Then the wait began, the packet informing us it could take up to 12 months before mushrooms appeared.
A year rolled around and no mushrooms in sight, then six months later my husband noticed the log covered with shiitake mushrooms while mowing the lawn. We ended up with two icecream containers of fresh mushrooms and two smaller harvests in the months to follow.
After that rather long wait, I was happy to go back to buying mushrooms until I discovered a bag of grow-your-own indoor mushrooms at the farmers’ market last year. Delicate pink and white oyster mushrooms were on offer and I jumped at the chance to give it another go. The technique was quite different and guaranteed mushrooms within a month. I was instructed to keep the large strawstuffed bag in a cool dark place (the laundry worked well) and apply a daily misting of water. Within two weeks we were picking handfuls of plump oyster mushrooms. Two successive harvests were to follow.
All and all the indoor mushroom growing was a fun experience and one I will do again. The large harvests meant there were too many to eat fresh so extra mushrooms were sliced and dried on trays in a 50C oven (or you could use a dehydrator) and stored in jars.
Here are two mushroom recipes, one with dried mushrooms and another with fresh.
Garlic butter mushrooms with parsley polenta
Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 20 minutes Serves 4
4 cups boiling water
1 cup quick-cook (instant) polenta Pinch of salt
50g grated parmesan, optional Small bunch of parsley, finely
chopped (about 3 tbsp) 30g butter
2 garlic cloves, chopped 300g brown button mushrooms,
sliced
100g feta, crumbled
Pour the boiling water into a large saucepan and bring to a rapid boil. Add the salt, then slowly trickle in the polenta while whisking to prevent lumps. Turn down the heat and whisk constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir through the parmesan and parsley.
Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a medium high heat. Add the butter. Once it has melted, add the garlic and mushrooms and stir over the heat for 5-6 minutes until the mushrooms are golden.
Spoon the parsley polenta into bowls, top with the mushrooms and scatter with the feta. Serve immediately.
Chilli and garlic pickled mushrooms
These pickled mushrooms should come with a warning as they are so addictive. I make a jar of these most weeks to add to lunch bowls or as a condiment at the dinner table. You can increase/reduce the chilli quantity depending on your heat preference. Find dried assorted mushrooms at supermarkets and specialty food stores.
Preparation time: 15 minutes + mushroom soaking time Makes about 2 cups
50g dried mushrooms (I used
assorted mushroom mix) 2 cups boiling water
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli flakes or 1 red chilli,
finely chopped
Place the dried mushrooms into a bowl and pour over the boiling water. Cover and set aside to hydrate for 1 hour.
Drain well in a sieve, pressing out as much liquid as possible and place the mushrooms into a 500ml jar. Keep the soaking liquid to add to a soup or use for cooking rice (or the polenta, left).
Combine the remaining ingredients in a jug and pour over the mushrooms. Cover and store in the fridge.
Leave to infuse for minimum of 3 hours before consuming. Use within 2 weeks.
Nicola Galloway is an awardwinning food writer, cookbook author and culinary tutor. homegrown-kitchen.co.nz
Pelargoniums vs geraniums: can you tell the difference?
It’s true they’re in the same plant family but – as in most families – while they have similarities, they differ in many ways. Geranium flowers have five similar petals; pelargonium blooms have two upper petals which are different from the three lower petals.
True geraniums, often called cranesbill geranium or hardy geranium, are mostly found growing naturally in the east Mediterranean and other temperate regions including New Zealand. There are around 422 species in the Geranium genus, many of them flowering annual, biennial and perennial plants.
Within the Pelargonium genus are perennials, sub-shrubs, shrubs and succulents. All up, there are around 280 species. They’re mainly found growing naturally in a range of habitats from mountains to deserts in the southern regions of Africa, particularly South Africa and Namibia. Pelargoniums are further grouped as zonal, fancyleaved, ivy-leaved, regal or scentedleaved varieties.
Even though the two were separated into two genera some 250 years ago by French botanist Charles L’Heritier, many gardeners continue to call pelargoniums geraniums.
Prune fruit trees
Winter is the time to prune your fruit trees if you want to control their shape (whereas you prune in summer if you want to reduce their vigour). You can minimise diseases by spraying pip- and stonefruit with a broad spectrum copper spray, such as Yates Copper Oxychloride, which helps eradicate overwintering bacterial and fungal infections; and a horticultural oil, like Yates Conqueror Spraying Oil, which provides a physical barrier against scale, mites and mealy bug. Spray again with copper in spring, especially stonefruit which are prone to fungal problems and when symptoms appear, it’s too late to treat.
If you need to prune citrus, do it now. In warmer weather, female lemon tree borer (Oemona hirta) will sniff out the sap of any recently cut citrus from miles away as she looks for somewhere to lay her eggs. The larvae then tunnel into the branches and cause untold damage – a bad infestation can destroy a whole tree. Citrus shouldn’t need a lot of pruning, but if you want to cut branches for shape, or to make harvest easier, only ever do so in winter.
Sow broad beans and peas for spring
These tough legumes germinate in cold soil so you can sow direct, but if it’s so cold and wet and you’d prefer to work inside, sow in trays and plant them out when established instead.
Be aware that the growth will be slow for weeks, but they will take off like the clappers as soon as it warms up. Sow broad beans in a block rather than in rows – support these tall plants by tying a long piece of twine around a block of them so they hold each other up. And give climbing peas something to climb, like a trellis or fence. Otherwise they pop up while you are not looking and grow into an impenetrable knot!
– compiled by Barbara Smith